Stop Buying Cheap Suet Balls for Your Bird Feeder – Here’s What They’re Really Made of, and What You Should Look For Instead

Feeding birds in winter is vital as other natural food sources become scarce. But, there's one popular product you should think twice about purchasing: suet balls.

While high-quality suet balls are full of nutrients and are energizing, beneficial for feeding garden birds in winter, many of the low-cost suet balls on the market contain filler ingredients (including things like sawdust) that are not so healthy for birds and can even cause harm.

For this reason, suet ball alternatives (like these peanut suet pellets from Amazon) are often the better choice. These alternatives are packed with nutritional ingredients that will actually help garden birds in winter and not cause illness. Here, we take a look at why cheap suet balls should be avoided this winter and the worthwhile alternatives to spend your money on instead.

Why Should You Avoid Cheap Suet Balls?

High-quality suet balls, or fat balls, are packed with nutrients and provide energy that keeps birds warm in the most challenging conditions of the winter months.

But, some suet balls have been found to have filler ingredients.

'Some of the ‘fillers’ used in low priced products including sawdust, sand, and chalk,' warns Lucy Taylor of Vine House Farm Bird Foods. 'You won’t need to be a bird expert to know that such ingredients are not only useless but also potentially harmful,' she adds.

Though, Lucy shares this is less common in products like suet pellets and blocks (you should, however, always check the ingredients before putting them out in your yard).

Warning signs include the suet balls being extremely cheap and ingredients not being listed on the packaging.

Many of the harmful ingredients added to these products are undigestible and can threaten birdlife.

Not only this, but suet balls that come in netting ready to hang up can be hazardous for birds, trapping their feet.

Instead, bird feeders for fall and winter should be used, like this metal cage bird feeder from Amazon. You can even try making a natural bird feeder for your yard.

With this in mind, here are six of the best suet ball alternatives for feeding birds in winter.

6 Suet Ball Alternatives

Alongside these suet ball alternatives, consider adding native plants to feed birds in winter to your yard.

Winter Bird Feeding Accessories